Driving Crosscountry 2020 : The Great Basin Utah (& Nevada)

 As a geological phenomenon, the great basin is absolutely huge! And it is full of absolutely nothing. Nothing and nothing for miles around. Before we entered the great basin, we kept seeing these signs for a port of entry and last gas for 180 miles. It was quite creepy and one of those worrisome places that you realized that you could possibly die if your car broke down, because nonody would come along for hours. It turns out that the great basin is truly a basin, there was a port of entry with steep mountains at the side of the basin, then you would enter the basin and you could see the other side and the mountains that marked it, but you would drive hours upon hours and never reach it. Then randomly, you would come upon a Mesa again, or a strange rock formation carved out by wind.

 And in the middle of the vast nothingness, we decided to get out and take a few pictures for scale.  As you can see there is nothing and no one for miles around. Vast and dangerous and a little bit creepy.  In fact, if you zoom in to this picture above in between the truck and the edge of the picture you will see a small memorial mound which. the landscape along the road where people's cars have broken down and people have died.

You can see the large truck we drove cross country which is a reminder that the real reason why we are doing this is to bring Leia and Harvest all of their things and get them settled in Oregon.

THEN ... in the absolute middle of nowhere,  There was a weird purple solitary building called the Twilight Zone. We did not stop, and I didn't think enough to take a picture which I regretted later. So I had to go online and find this picture. It really is a real place and is famous for its beef jerky.

As an interesting comparison to the mountains at the beginning of the great pace and, you can see later and closer to Nevada, the mountains suddenly become Gray with streaks of white.Why were there lighter mountains with streaks of white?… 

... It turns out that the streaks of white were SALT! Little did we know we were arriving at one of the big drains of the great basin called the salt flats.

Driving Crosscountry 2020 : The Desert Rose Hotel in Utah

Truly one of the treasures of the desert, we came upon the Desert Rose Hotel in the middle of absolutely nowhere! It was such a beautiful resort with grounds that had many picture taking capabilities and beautiful views of the mesas from every room.

 And just as another example of the hidden beauty of the desert, as we were walking along the grounds filled with parched Earth where nothing could possibly grow unless it was watered extensively, we found this naturally growing desert plant with these beautiful yellow flowers!

Driving Crosscountry 2020 : Arches National Park

Which Shana immediately dubbed "Penis National Park" for obvious reasons.

Driving Crosscountry 2020 : The Grandest Picture from Utah

Shana actually took this picture as we drove through Utah and the Old West. It is the most spectacular picture of the whole trip and truly captures Utah's beauty.

Driving Crosscountry 2020 : Utah's Mesas & Moab Giants

 As we were driving alone, near the tiny town of Moab Utah, We suddenly saw life size dinosaurs! It turns out that there is a dinosaur experience here called the Moab giants. And we just happened to drive by!

These little desert towns, like Moab, in the middle of nowhere were surreal!

 And the mesas began to get more and more Orange like the old West!